#I don't hate that. What was it Black and White? Mostly had all new pokemon but I do think on replays I didn't love it

[death-rebirth-senshi]

Ha I don't care about regional dexes but I'll admit I do think Kalos kind of lacks identity because of it.

[shiny-jr]

ooh wait have you played three houses?? i saw you mentioned it in one of your recent posts and i got curious. can i ask what are your thoughts on it if you have played it?

also also, have you played pokemon scarlet/violet at all? i’d really love to hear your thoughts on it, especially with its latest dlc ^^ (super sorry i’m grouping two different games in this ask, i didn’t wanna send messages back to back, but feel free to only answer one if you want!)

Oh boy, more opportunities for me the spout nonsense and my odd opinions. I will gladly take it. Buckle up, anon and others reading, because I have a long history with both franchises.

I've been playing Fire Emblem since Fire Emblem: Awakening, then Fates, Heroes, and eventually Three Houses. My take: Awakening is still the best one, but maybe I'm biased. I remember playing it and marrying Chrom on accident, whoops.

Anyways, Three Houses was alright, better than Fates but not better than Awakening. I remember it came out, and I was actually upset because I was in another country on the US release date so I didn't get to play it until I got back. Even when I saw the trailers, I knew I was Golden Deers all the way. Odd, I know, most people prefer the other teams. Claude, Hilda, Marianne, Lysithea, my dears. OH, and before I go on, I just want to say, I hate the female MC. And no, it's not what you think, I only hate her because literally why does her outfit look like that compared to the male MC? Robin from Awakening was always the better protagonist anyways.

After completing the Golden Deers route, I decided I wanted to try and complete all the routes because at that point I disliked a huge majority of the characters. I tried Blue Lions next. At first I didn't really have much of an opinion on Dimitri, but he grew on me eventually, because how could I resist such a miserable brooding man that later gets a soft spot for one person (plus his design was kinda badass)? But I will admit, his behavior immediately post-timeskip was kinda annoying. I thought I would dislike Felix, but shockingly, I didn't, I actually liked him. And you know what? Dedue is CRIMINALLY underrated, he's literally probably the nicest and loyalest dude of all time. He got some hate for his race from some characters, and I actually got heated.

After Blue Lions, I knew I had to play through Black Eagles twice if I wanted the last two routes. However, here's the thing. In both previous routes, Golden Deer and Blue Lions, I had loathed Edelgard. But, I thought to myself, I just needed to try her route and maybe I'll change my mind... Well, I was wrong. Edelgard is probably one of the characters I HATE most in any franchise. And I tried so hard to like her, like I would give her gifts and answer dialogue truthfully, only for the relationship thing to go down. Like damn, okay. I just couldn't stand her. The others in her route were mostly fine, I liked Ferdinand, Bernadetta, Caspar, and Petra. But because of Edelgard, I couldn't even finish her route once and it's still uncompleted to this day.

Now... onto Pokemon.

Fun fact, I completed Pokemon Black and White when I was in first grade and couldn't read everything. Don't ask me how I did it, because I honestly have no clue. I've played every gen since then: Black and White 2, X and Y, Sun and Moon, Ultra Sun and Moon, Sword and Shield, Arceus, Scarlet and Violet. I did indeed preorder the game when it was announced, as I have done for the generations before. Where do you think my username comes from? In most pokemon games, I love collecting shiny pokemon. Shiny.

I was hyped for Scarlet and Violet since the first day it was announced. I lost my mind the day it was first announced and eagerly waited months for it. When it came out, I dropped everything for several days. As a regular fan, I always set this tradition for myself to defeat new pokemon games within or around 24 hours and of course, I did so.

The game itself has a lot of issues, namely the glitches and quality of the frames. But, it's on the switch, so that's to be expected. It felt really rushed in that aspect. I just feel like they could do so much better if they really wanted to, like on par with BOTW or TOTK (those games have bad frames too but at least they look a lot better). As for mechanics, I really missed the mechanics from Arceus, but at least Scarlet and Violet improved upon the poor excuse of the open area that was in Sword and Shield.

Story and characterwise, I'm torn.

Here's what I like: (1) the multiple split routes, (2) certain characters.

(1) It made it feel like you really had a lot to do, and that combined with the open area of the entire map made it seem like a lot. It is a lot. So it's really fun to explore and try to complete everything. Even just walking about, you're bound to get distracted, lost, or find something completely new. I was just playing it a while ago after completing everything and there were still little secrets I didn't notice the first time around.

(2) Arven, my god, do I love a guy with mommy AND daddy issues. And he has a dog? I'm hooked. I didn't expect to get attached to him, but I did. I actually prefer his route purely because of the story within it with his companion. I didn't see that coming, and I was so worked up over it. Another character I like, Director Clavell. A good supporting professor, you love to see it. Wish he showed up more though.

Here's what I dislike: (1) the villains, (2) the gym leaders, and (3) other characters, (4) the leveling system. (5) I'll talk about the dlc last.

(1) We haven't had a good villain team in a while. Black and White was super memorable with N, X and Y's Lysandre with Team Flare was a joke, Sun and Moon's Team Skull with Guzma was actually good because they were funny and non-threatening, Sword and Shield with Team Yell was actual trash, and this Team Star being bad guys but not really bad guys was actually so boring. Let's roll it back to Team Aqua literally planning to recreate a great flood or Team Magma planning to create havoc with volcanoes, Team Plasma that wanted to liberate Pokemon, or Team Galactic that were going to harness the power of time/space/universe and their leader is trapped/died in an empty dimension. They don't make Pokemon villains like they used to, huh?

(2) The gym leaders are very forgettable this time around. Like, they don't play much of a role aside battling, and after that you don't really see them again at all. It's a shame, because some of them have potential for greater use and have really good designs. Not to mention, they were all weak as hell.

(3) The Champion was a let down. Geeta (I had to look up her name). I was iffy when I first saw images of her, I didn't like her design but I just decided to go with the flow and I'll probably change my mind. I didn't. She's as forgettable of a champion as Alder and Diantha were. At least we saw Leon in the SwSh a lot and we got to hear from characters about how strong he was. Geeta wasn't like that at all, her team was a joke. Nemona as a rival was annoying, she got on my nerves from the first few moments we met her. I think Penny had potential, but I just didn't like her.

(4) The leveling system was really annoying. What happened was, I tried to complete the other two routes first and save the gym leaders for last. However, when I did this, because I didn't have any gym badges, new pokemon caught wouldn't listen even if my other pokemon were like 20 or more levels above them. So I had to pause the other route, just to do some of the gyms that way I could actually use new pokemon. I know they tried the system to prevent people from just cheating the system by automatically getting high-leveled pokemon from friends, but it just got in the way.

(5) DLC so far... not a fan. I mean, it's something. It's there. It's a thing. But it has nothing so far that makes me like it. The rivals are meh, and the region confuses the hell out of me. I don't get why do Scarlet and Violet region of Paldea based off Spain, but then have a DLC with an island that's so very obviously based off Japan. They could've picked anything around Spain but go back to Japan when 4/9 of the regions are already supposedly based off Japan? Idk, it was kind of a let down to be honest. I haven't completed the dlc, so I still have to do that. The new map is small, but I heard the next dlc is supposed to be huge so here's to hoping that one is better?

[jayden-the-brionne]

And so the ritual was prepared. The sigils drawn and the candles lit. The dusknoir spoke strange words and before Jayden knew he found himself somewhere new. Not his house. Or Noe Town at all. But...a black void? It sure seemed like a black void with far away white spots on the sky. Like stars but not quite.

"Just what is this place..." Jayden muttered

"Was going to ask you that as well, Jayden." Said a voice behind him. A voice he knew. He turned around and saw the ghost. Even now the spirit was in flames and he seemed quite angry.

"I told you to not try anything else yet you contacted a specialist at ghosts to deal with me. Honestly the only reason I didn't stop that was because I found that would be entertaining to see what the specialist would come with and fail miserably altought I never expected... This." The ghost said.

And talking about the specialist... The dusknoir appeared between the two of them.

"State your names. And what each one wish to win with this battle." He said as a matter of fact

"You really think I will do as you as-"

"You shall,Spirit. Unless you wish to stay on here forever."

"... Elroy." The ghost finally admitted

"I am Jayden"

"Elroy and Jayden. Before this soul battle starts it must be decided what Elroy wins if Jayden loses. For what Jayden wins is already obvious. His freedom from Elroy's haunting."

"... He can have my house for the rest of eternity."

"You're saying if I defeat you I get a place to haunt no matter what?" The specter smiled.

"Yes."

"Deal!"

The dusknoir gave a look at Elroy. Then at Jayden.

"Then... Let the fight begin!"

And he floated far above the two

Alright Jayden... It is time to use the one thing you have above the ghost... You know more about battling like a Pokemon then him... Jayden tought.

The ghost went after him ready to punch the sea lion Pokemon. But via aqua jet he went to the right, dodging the attack and came back to the left hitting the ghost with the water move.

That seemed to have been effective if the spirit being sent somewhat away was anything to go by.

"How... How did you make that hurt that much!?" Elroy asked confused

"Guessed since you were on fire that you would act like a fire type. Turns out I was right." He smiled

"You're telling me that just because I died on a burning house... I have to be weak to stupid water moves!?"

The ghost became angry and what could be best described as multiple flames appeared. Forming together into one great flamethrower move going towards Jayden.

Jayden tried to jump over the flames but that would not work as hoped. The flames did not hit him mostly but did hit the end of his tail

He gave a small scream of pain. It might be not effective but it sure was still strong enough to hurt

"Why are you even doing this!? The whole haunting thing I mean. Why make people suffer?" Jayden asked as he used bubble beam. Shooting the projectiles at the ghost.

Elroy mainly tanked the bubbles. Not seemingly caring for the move

"Why!?" He shouted. "Because if I had to suffer when I had done nothing then why shouldn't others!? Why shouldn't the world be unfair to them as well!? And you know what!? After I'm done with you I will go after those dumb kids you care for and that stupid cat you love so much!"

The ghost concentrated and on one of his hands formed a shadow ball before trowing it at Jayden. The brionne responded by using bubble beam once again.

The moves collided. A explosion happened. When the smoke dissapeared enough for Jayden once again to be visible his confused expression had changed to one that showed a mixture of annoyed and sad.

"I see... I tought you were vengeful... But no... You are just bitter. Angry." He closed his eyes. "I understand the world was unfair to you. But that does not give you a right to hurt others. I... Don't hate you. I feel sadness and sympathy for you."

He opened his eyes. Now showing determination.

"But when you decided to threaten those I care for... You went too far. You are not worth their time. And if you think I will let a bitter ghost even dare to waste a second of their time... YOU THOUGHT...!"

And then he said as loud as he could. With as much determination as he could

"WRONG!!!"

The waves of noise so strong that they functioned as a attack hitting the ghost and making him go to the ground. Jayden had learned hyper voice without using a tm!

For a moment it seemed that was it but the ghost then floated up.

"You are starting to get on my nerves, Jayden..."

"I am afraid I have news for you. You don't have nerves. And soon you won't even be able to say mistakes like that in front of me."

End of part 2

[requiemforarainbow]

Loooooong story, so a Read More is needed. Click through if you enjoy talk of Nintendo, handhelds, and a shitload of Pokemon talk.

Earlier today I went on a hunting spree, looking for all my gaming handhelds. All of them are Nintendo, and I have at least one of most versions going back to the original Game Boy.

My original Game Boy is actually a "recent" acquisition. When I was a kid, I had the grey brick. It was my favorite thing in the world. When the Game Boy Pocket came out, I got it for Christmas. My original? I was "asked" (read: guilted/forced) to give it to my sister's then best friend, so she could play games with us, as her parents weren't able to afford to buy her one. I hated doing it then; I see the wisdom now and honestly, I'm a little angry at my younger self for not just offering it.

Anyway. For years it was the ONLY one I was missing of the line. I had and kept the others (Pocket, Color, Advance & SP, DS, 3DS, 3DS XL, and Switch), and legit, ALL of them are still in working order. But not the original.

At a con in 2018, I spotted a games vendor with tons of Nintendo stuff. And there, lying on their table, was a beauty. An original Game Boy...in green. The vendor informed me that the green one was a Japanese import (not sure if true, didn't care if not). I informed him it was the only one I was missing, and that green is my favorite color, and inquired on the price.

$45.

SOLD.

I had about $300 total to spend on souvenirs. This was a FIND. If it had cost ALL my spending money, I would have spent it.

It works like a dream, btw.

My Pocket and Color have been MIA since about 2013. I know they're around here somewhere. Just not sure which box I put them in. It's probably the same box that has my Advance SP's charger. I also managed to find my GB Advance: a special one, the gold New York Pokemon Center edition. (My sister and I were very lucky that year.)

(I do know I sound kind of spoiled, having all these things and not having had to ever sell them. I know I'm privileged. Trust me. If I can manage to not ever have to sell my collection, I won't. If I have to ever sell my things, they'll be the very last things I do. And hopefully to someone who will appreciate them.)

What spurred me to do this? I wanted to finally catalogue all my Pokemon games. The name I gave each Trainer, what starter I picked, and any relevant notes.

Do I have all the games? Not myself. But between my sister and I, we do. And yes, still have them. Some don't work, but they're still in the collection. (My sister no longer plays. Hasn't since Black & White. Wish me luck in attempting to nab her copies! And no, I will not overwrite her games. I want to keep them mostly intact and maybe try to bring over any 'mon I can.)

I've tried to give each Trainer a unique name since Gen 2, so that when I trade up a 'mon, I can trace it back to what game/gen it originated in. In cases where I own both/all the games in a set, each one has a unique name, as well as alternating gender for games you can choose it.

For instance: - My sister had Ruby; I had Sapphire. Trainer's name was Lilya. - I have both Brilliant Diamond & Shining Pearl. BD's trainer is Melpomene; SP's trainer is Morpheus. (I'm a Greek mythology nerd; it's also a reference to the book series I've been writing. Two royal siblings, and Morpheus is older.)

So I found the games (most of them, at least), and piled them up. Charged the systems that required it, fresh batteries in the ones that take 'em. (BTW, the 3DS and the 3DS XL can use the same charger. I misplaced one of them, so this is a nice realization.)

Games in, on, check Trainer/starter. Enter data in spreadsheet. Save game, turn off; insert next one. Repeat.

Here's what the cataloguing revealed:

- 1 game currently MIA (Sun) - 2 games busted and data loss (original Silver cart. and Pearl cart.) - 1 game half-busted (Sapphire's internal clock borked) - 4 games total with original trainer and starter long gone (reset, likely multiple times in some cases) - majority of transferrable Pokemon transferred out and up (Pokemon Bank, Pokemon Home, or on higher gen cart.) - at least 6(!) total games with some version of my name (Jordan/Jordi) as the trainer name, so would make figuring out provenance of Pokemon very fuzzy for earlier gen catches - I FOUND MY SHINY MEW! It's in Ultra Moon.

I don't remember if Legendaries/Mythics can be traded into Bank/Home and up. I HOPE they can. My Shiny is a "recent" trade but... I have a legit Mew I've had since Yellow. It's ALSO in UM. And I desperately want to make sure I can keep it. The Mew was given to me in middle school by a friend who got it in either Japan or Korea (I can't remember which) and hated it. Mew's always been my fave 'mon, so he gave it to me. It's been my lucky 'mon. It's level 100 now. If it can't be transferred out and up, at least I know where the little one is now.

I'm pretty sure the Shiny Mew is a hacked one; I got it in a Wonder Trade, so no idea of the provenance of it. Don't care. Shiny Mew is my absolute fave; it's blue, it's Mew.

I also have tried the Mew glitch in Yellow multiple times over the years. It's never worked for me. But...my Yellow is one of the games that I evidently reset and reset and reset (after trading stuff out and up). So I might try it a couple hundred more times. I know I still have the cables somewhere that the old systems required for trading, and we have enough systems that are compatible with the cables and games. So theoretically, if I can get it to work, I can get the Mew out.

I've also had some people try to get me to admit my "legit" traded Mew was also hacked. My friend's parents confirmed their vacation to...I think Japan or Korea, really can't remember after all this time. Met his pen pal there, and his pen pal had an extra Mew from an event that he gave my friend. So it is, as far as I know, and as far as my friend knew, legit. (Looking at the Mew events from around that time and prior, they were all in Japan. So it's a Japanese Mew. But I'm not sure of my friend's pen pal's nationality, and can't remember what country they resided in that his family visited on vacation.)

And while on this cataloguing excursion, I discovered that I have 2 copies each of Yellow and Silver. One each of a hard copy (cartridge), and one each of a digital copy on my 3DS XL. Neither digital copy has been completed, either. The digital copies are nice because I'll be 36 in two weeks and the original Game Boy's screen is a NIGHTMARE for my broken-ass eyes now. (Diabetes isn't helping my eyesight any, either.) So I can play Yellow on a screen that actually lets me SEE SHIT.

And as for Silver? The cartridge is busted. The internal stuff is so old that not only is the internal clock broken, but it's corrupted to the point it won't save. So if you start a new game, you either can't turn it off EVER, or you have to start over from the beginning every time. Kinda gives an old Nintendo fan war flashbacks of Super Mario Bros. 3, actually... The digital copy of Silver ACTUALLY SAVES. I've apparently got a game started on it, too. It's one of the Jordans. I might restart that and give them a different name, since I'm not too far in.

The other totally busted game is my hard copy of Pearl. I put it in the system, tap it to play, and...the system crashes. So that's nice. It's sister title, Diamond? Either I let my best friend play it, because the trainer's his nickname, or it's a copy I bought that just coincidentally has that name. At least I have Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, and they're basically the same game as before.

If I can't snag my sister's copies of the other games, I might see about attempting to buy them. Slowly. Probably from newest gen to oldest, though at the rate I could afford them now, the Gen 1's might end up prohibitively expensive. I might also at some point attempt to snag physical copies of the digital ones I own. Just in case. Physical media will always beat downloads for me. It's the reason I still have DVDs.

Okay, this is seriously long enough. I'm going back to playing Pokemon. Scarlet, this time. Maybe with a side of Arceus if I get bored.

[kharmii]

Emmet: Would you want to bang me if I was an enormous stinky white dog?

Ingo: *takes conductor's cap off and pukes in it*

Ingo: Sorry about that...a touch of the flu. What's a dog? Is that like a mightyena?

Emmet: I think it's supposed to be something larger and more rank, such as a stoutland.

-So I did a drawing where the Subway Bosses are doing the same thing as the gardevoir in the Twitter link....they are looking at all the nonsense put up about them on the internet and having some sort of reaction. Unlike any gardevoir, they are probably enjoying the nsfw and wish there was more of a percentage. -Like why is 99% of gardevoir fan art on Pixiv R18, but they are only getting around 15% on the Subway Masters Yaoi tag? They are grown men! -And poor Emmet is likely perturbed that he's getting the worst representation in the dark!fics and other AUs. Ingo might be post Hisui amnesiac and relying on Emmet to let him in on what's real and what's bullshit. Emmet is straightforward and honest and willing to tell him the absolute truth...even if it shows them -or just him- in a terrible light.

I have sort of a beef with the blankshipping fandom lately, like why has it been hijacked by furries all of a sudden? What does a guy banging every sort of animal have to do with identical twins in train conductor's costumes? It's like Old Macdonald Had a Farm around the blankshipping tag, like a barkbark here and a moomoo there... (with me like here a barf there a barf everywhere a barf barf). It would make more sense if both twins were an animal in the Pokemon world, such as twin lucarios or lycanrocs in trainmen uniforms.....because they are identical twins, and people into blankshipping are into the idea of romance between identical twins. There is the one person whom I won't link to due to the nature of this post who does the hot take where, instead of being two autistic guys mistaken for zoroarks, they are actual half-zoroarks. This person is heavily into the trainwreckshipping tag. Go check them out because it's fun.

Side note: The same furries into animal farking have told me a couple times they aren't into the Melli or Volo ships. -So they aren't into the twins getting perfect ten in looks characters who are actually canon, but they'll be beastophiles? Some of them act as if this fandom is getting stale already, like Ingo has only been in Hisui since the third week of January 2022. While I'm still getting excited about reunion hugs, furries be like, "What if there were four Ingos, and Emmet two days out of every month turned into a huge stanky dog with two dicks and four balls? What if all four Ingos liked to screw the dog version of Emmet, on average, ten times more than the human version?" (And no, that isn't a commission I'm considering)

Oh well, I guess any content is better than no content. I wouldn't want to go back to when I first got into this, and the only blankshipping content was that one depressing post-Hisui story on AO3 where Emmet moped around thinking, "Before Hisui, I used to give Ingo head until I choked. Now he just thinks I'm his brother...." *sniff*

The other weird thing was that someone made a blankshipping Discord, and they wouldn't let new members view the blacked out text or adult channel unless they provided a form of ID with their birth date on it. A lot people clearly were uncomfortable about this, and the mod said that they could black everything else out except the birthdate. It seemed like bs because even R18 channels featuring irl people doing it don't require ID. They claimed it was to prevent minors from joining....in a fandom that's mostly older people like 25+ of age, and a bunch of them acted all paranoid about anti infiltration trolling. I thought it would be funny to present a fake id...but eh.

That's another thing......all this anti paranoia seems unfounded. I got some anon-hate when I first got into blankshipping, but after they all blocked me in the first two weeks, I was left alone. The blankshippers act as if they don't want to interact with the main Submas tag -because of such fear of antis- but some of the best non-dog screwing shippy content can be found on the main. Maybe the artists don't exactly mean it to come across that way, but my imagination goes there more often than not.

.................and finally, I showed a male friend on another forum my posts about Yandere fiction. He has experience hearing about the worst-of-the-worst in both the sci-fi and furry communities. I had been looking at yandere from the perspective of a female who fantasizes about being the fixation of the yandere. He, otoh, assumed the artists looked at it from the perspective of the yandere and believes that it might be coded as pedophiles who want to kidnap children and lock them in sex dungeons. What....also.....does that have to do with identical, adult-ass adult train muppets? I guess that would be true based on if the person writing the fiction were male or female? I'm used to assuming everybody in fandom is a female (or a transmale... whatever). Anyway, I'm sure this is mostly creative autism but people shouldn't get all huffy when antis are suspicious of their kinks.